Many of us work hard, but do we work smart? Since we all need to maximise what little time we have on the job, the five tips shared will help us increase our productivity – our output – in the workplace.

 

We all know the saying, “time is money”, but perhaps more importantly we are all required to do more with what little time we have. As much as productivity has been a buzz word for several years, the fact of the matter is that we all need to find ways and means of working smarter. Along that vein, below are five IT-related tips that can help busy professionals be more productive.

1.  Get a second monitor

The impact of connecting a second monitor to increase productivity cannot be overstated. Essentially, you are more than doubling your viewing area, and consequently, the amount of information that you are able to manipulate at any given time. As a result, using two screens can significantly increase productivity – by more than 40% (Source:  Online Class Mentor), thus allowing you to focus better, and so get through tasks much quicker.

2.  Identify and track your to-dos

One of the most crucial pieces of advice that is frequently communicated, is to clearly identify the tasks you need to do and to prioritise them. Over the years, we, at ICT Pulse, have identified several productivity applications, especially task trackers/managers that might be useful. Regardless of the application you choose, or even if it is an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or just pen and paper, the point is to clearly account for how you intend to spend your time during a day: what are your priority tasks; along with any other tasks you want (or need) to accomplish.

3.  Store files in the cloud

In some organisations, the ‘cloud’ is still almost a bad word. However, when you are working on important documents, storing a version of those files in the cloud can be invaluable, especially if you need to access and work on documents from more than one location. Additionally, should you choose to  work on documents in the cloud, you are unlikely to lose (some of) your work – because you forgot to save your work frequently, or if the application closes unexpected, since virtually all of the popular cloud-based applications tend to save changes in real-time.

2.  Organize your contacts effectively

This point has two issues. First, do you systematically ensure that details of new contacts are entered into a single and coherent contact management application or system? Second, are entering sufficient detail to facilitate efficient searches of your contacts when needed?

With regard to first point, we tend to have our contacts stored across several media – business cards, in our smartphones, and in our email application. They each have some of our contacts, but not all. It thus means that when you are looking for the details for a particular individual, you are not guaranteed to find it – and find it quickly – depending on where you look.

For the second point, many of the popular contact management applications allow you to enter a broad range of information on each contact. Frequently, we may not remember a person’s name, but might remember where they work, but if those (and other) details are not captured in the system, we can spend s considerable amount to time scrolling through our contacts, hoping that a name we are looking for (or other tidbit) might jump out at us.

3.  Streamline repetitive tasks

Do you consistently get the same request from clients, or even colleagues, resulting in you having to send the same, or virtually identical, replies over and over again. Some of these repetitive tasks can be automated, or even streamlined. For example, templates responses – or information – that can be cut and paste into an email (or document) can be established, thus reducing the time spent trying to compose a message you have already sent out dozens of times. It may also be possible to automate certain email messages, so that they are sent by the email platform when specific information has been requested, or even to acknowledge receipt of certain communication.